Katrinka - The Lost Chapter

After a few more trips across the pond, my stomach began to rumble and I realized I was hungry. Eadric was already catching dragonflies among the lily pads, so when a water strider tiptoed past me, I turned and followed it toward the shore. The bug was so close that I could almost taste it when it zipped in among the tall cattails that grew at the edge of the pond and disappeared from sight. I slipped between the plants, so intent on finding my snack that I didn't notice the little girl until it was too late.

Pudgy fingers closed around me, scooping me from the water. I squirmed, my stomach lurching as the ground dropped away. Suddenly I was staring into wide, blue, guileless eyes framed by long, dark lashes. It took a moment before the button nose, bow-shaped mouth and ash blond curls registered as well. Stunned, I stopped wiggling as the little girl backed away from the pond and darted off in the opposite direction, holding me between cupped hands. She was kidnapping me and there was nothing I could do about it!

Her home must have been close to the pond because it didn't take her long to reach it. A run-down wattle and daub cottage, it couldn't have had more than two rooms. Grasping me with one hand, she opened the door with the other and darted to a pallet by the hearth. It was dark inside, much like Vannabe's cottage, but even so I could see that the cottage was in disarray. The floor needed a good sweeping, and the entire room should have been aired out, for it stank of ale and sweat. The only furniture in the room was a bench, two stools and a plank table cluttered with unwashed wooden dishes. A second pallet lay on the other side of the hearth, dirtier and more ragged than the little girl's and littered with scraps of clothing. Although it was mid-day, I could hear someone snoring in the other room.

I watched the little girl pull a crudely carved wooden box from under the bench, hoping all the while that she wasn't planning to put me in it. To my relief, she took something from the box and set it on the pallet. Although I first thought that the object was a bundle of rags, when she picked it up again I realized that it was a doll, an ugly doll, but probably the only one she owned. Its head was a dried apple, its leathery brown face as wizened as that of an ancient woman. Faded rags covered its straw body, defining its arms and lack of legs.

"This is Sylvie," the child said, waggling the doll in my face. "She's going to be your friend. Your name is… What's a good name for a cute little froggie? I'll call you… Emeralda, after the princess. I saw her once when she was riding in a beautiful carriage with the queen."

"But that's my n…" It suddenly occurred to me that it might be wiser if I didn't talk. Letting Vannabe know that we could speak had only made the situation worse. Maybe, if I didn't talk now… But it was too late. The little girl had heard me and she wasn't about to forget it.

"You're a talking frog!" she cried, her face lighting up in excitement. "I bet you're enchanted! Who are you really? You must be someone important! Oh, please tell me! I'll help you if you do!" She'd help me! Finally, someone who might be able to do something for us, even if it was only to take us to Grassina! We would find my friends and together we'd go to the castle. Grassina would take care of everything after that and… all I had to do was tell this child my name.

"I'm Princess Emeralda! I was turned into a frog when I…"

"I knew it! Let me see… a princess needs a cape and a crown." Setting me on the floor, she snatched up her doll and took off one of the many layers of rags. It was dirty and smelled sour and I tried to get away when the girl began to tie it around my neck. "Hold still!" she ordered. "A princess has to wear clothes! Now you need a crown."

Picking me up again, she ran out the door and into the patch of weeds that surrounded the house. She hummed to herself as she picked a handful of buttercups, but stopped when she ran back inside, shutting the door with a thud. The sleeper in the next room snorted, and the child held her breath, exhaling with a sigh when the rhythmic snoring resumed.

"My uncle's asleep," she whispered, holding me close to her mouth. Her breath was sweet, although I noticed for the first time that her hair was tangled and her face was smudged with dirt. "My mama's having a baby, so Uncle Radley is watching me until she's well enough for me to go home. He says I'm not supposed to go outside while he rests his eyes. Here," she said, depositing me on her pallet and sitting down beside me. "Now don't move."

I was surprised at how deftly her fingers wove the buttercup stems together, holding them over my head after each addition to make sure my crown would fit. It didn't take long for her to make the crown, and she seemed pleased when she placed it on my head.

"There!" she said, patting my back. "You're all set! Princess Emeralda, I'd like you to meet Sylvie. 'Hello, Princess!'" the little girl said in a squeaky voice while waggling the doll in my face again. "'How do you do?' Now you say hello to Sylvie!"

I didn't know what to do. This wasn't at all what I thought would happen. "You said you would help me!" I began, but the child would have none of it. She prodded me with her finger so forcefully that I yelped.

"Don't be rude!" she said. "Say hello to Sylvie!"

"Hello, Sylvie!"

The little girl clapped her hands and grinned. "Good! You two are going to have wonderful adventures together! But first we're going to have tea. Princesses always have tea!"

This is awful, I thought, seeing my hope of rescue dashed. I tried to hop away when she left to get the tea, but I couldn't get the cape off, and it was too long and confining, making it impossible for me to struggle more than a few feet before she returned carrying acorn caps filled with something thick and black.

"Here," she said, picking me up and plunking me on the table across from Sylvie. "Drink this."

After setting the makeshift cups in front of us, she hovered beside the table, watching me avidly. I picked up the cup and sniffed the liquid. It smelled earthy and I could see small clumps of something in the bottom. It was muddy water, I realized with disgust and I wasn't about to drink it. I hurried to set it back on the table, but my arm caught in a fold of the cape and I knocked over the cup, spilling the "tea" on the already dirty tabletop.

"Now look what you've done!" she scolded. "But that's all right! Sylvie says she isn't thirsty, so you can drink hers!"

I had decided to spill the next cup on purpose if I had to when the outside door banged open and a boy stalked in. Back-lit by the sunlight behind him, he seemed to fill the doorway, but it wasn't until he came all the way into the room that I realized just how big he was. He was tall, almost as tall as my father, his hair a greasy brown and his skin pockmarked and blotchy. Dead squirrels hung from one side of his belt and a slingshot was tucked into the other.

"What are you doin', Katrinka?" he asked, cuffing the little girl. She cringed when he hit her, then snatched me up before scuttling to the other side of the table. "Whaddya got there?" the boy growled. "Show me or I'll give you whaffor!"

"It's just a frog!" she said, shoving me behind her back. "We weren't doing anything wrong!"
"A frog, huh? Give it to me! I wanna see it!"

"I can't!" Katrinka said, tears welling up in her eyes. "She's a princess and you might hurt her!"

"A princess! Now this I gotta see!"

"Willum, I don't…"

The boy reached across the table, cuffing her again. "Give it to me, I said!"

Sniffling, Katrinka pulled me from behind her and set me on the table. My crown had slipped over my eyes, but I was afraid to adjust it, not wanting the boy to realize that I was anything but a frog. 
"A princess? You little liar! It's just a frog wearin' clothes. And you put it on the table! I gotta eat off that table and here you are puttin' a filthy animal on it!"

"She's not a filthy animal! It's Princess Emeralda. She told me so herself!"

"Oh, so now she can talk!"

"She's an enchanted princess! She can do lots of things!"

"Really? Let me see if she can scream for help!" The boy grinned evilly, reaching for his slingshot and one of the small round pebbles he kept in a pouch at his side.

"No, Willum, don't!" Katrinka shrieked and flew at the boy, pummeling him with her fists as he took aim at me.

"What's goin' on out 'ere?" bellowed a disheveled, middle-aged man from the doorway to the next room. While he wasn't as tall as Willum, his shoulders were broader, his belly bigger. Grey stubble covered his chin, while the beginnings of a mustache sprouted above his upper lip. His ragged tunic was a patchwork of varicolored stains, including some that looked fresh. The smell of ale grew stronger as he stumbled toward the table.

"You know you brats gotta shut up when I'm restin' my eyes!"

Willum turned so that the man couldn't see him and stuck out his tongue at Katrinka. Then, in a surprisingly innocent voice, he said, "Look, Pa, I been huntin'. I got some squirrels here, and Katrinka says she found an enchanted frog."

The man's face turned bright red and I could see the veins in his forehead pop out. "A frog! You been outta this house, girl? You know I told you never to go outta this house when I'm asleep! Why, I oughtta…" I had pressed myself against the table, wishing that I could disappear entirely, but the boy's father noticed me anyway. "Willum, what's that frog doin' on the table? I don't want frogs in my house! Get rid of the thing before I take my strap to you, boy! If your stepmother was here, she'd knock some sense into you! Vannabe was good at gettin her point across. I'll never forgive her for runnin' off like that, leavin' me to raise you by myself, but she always did think she was betteren us. Her and her books…"

The man was still ranting as his son sauntered to the table. Before I knew what was happening, Willum had picked me up in one callused fist and carried me to the outside door. He was smirking as he set me on the strap of his slingshot, pressing me into the curved leather so that the strap cut into me. Then suddenly the strap was moving and I was free.

This is it, I thought as I flew through the air, once again convinced that I was about to die. My crown fell off halfway across the yard, but my cape had been tied on too well. It streamed behind me, the knotted end tugging at my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut against the rush of the wind, so I had no warning when something snagged my cape, slowing my headlong flight.

"I got her, I got her!" shouted a familiar voice. I sagged in my cape, the knot choking me. "I don't have her, I don't have her!" squealed the voice. It was Li'l, flapping wildly above me as she struggled to keep me from hurtling to the ground. Her claws were embedded in my ragged cape, but the rotten fabric was shredding from my weight. I was only a few feet above the ground when the cape let go. I fell, tumbling through the air until I landed… on something soft and squishy.

"Oooh," moaned Eadric. He had been trying to catch me, which was chivalrous, but not the best idea. I rolled off him and got to my feet.

"Are you all right?" I asked, peering into his face.

"I'm fine," he groaned. "Gee, you weigh a lot!"

"She does not!" Li'l landed beside us, shaking her head at Eadric. "You weigh a lot more than she does! I've carried you both, so I should know!"

"How did you find me?" I asked.

"It wasn't hard," muttered Eadric.

"Fang saw the whole thing!" said Li'l. "That snake isn't afraid to go anywhere! I would never have come so close to this house if it weren't for him!" The little bat patted my arm. "Are you all right? Did that awful girl do anything to you?"

"She isn't awful," I said. "She's just a little girl! I hope she's all right."

"Hurry!" said Fang and I turned to find him coiled behind us, his eyes fastened on Willum who had stayed to watch me hit the ground. The boy's mouth hung open, but I saw a look of determination displace the disbelief as he set a pebble on the sling.

"Pa!" he shouted over his shoulder. "You gotta see this! Katrinka wasn't lyin' this time!"

We needed no further encouragement. Eadric and I hopped madly across the yard, ignoring the hubbub behind us. A stone whizzed by overhead, narrowly missing Li'l, and cutting a swath through the weeds before it thudded into the ground. Within seconds Eadric and I were in the taller weeds and scrub surrounding the house. A once neat farmyard, its neglected condition gave us plenty of places to hide.

When I heard a shout and violent cursing back by the farmhouse, I was sure that Fang was doing his best to protect us. Although he refused to say anything about it when we met up with him by the road, he was favoring his tail and didn't move as quickly as he had before.

Text © E.D. Baker
Jacket photo © Corbis Images, designed by Sharon Murray Jacobs